Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Confidential meeting held over canning New Year's Eve event

By Allison Hess and John Cousins
Bay of Plenty Times·
25 Oct, 2016 06:08 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Police have had an information-only meeting with councillors-elect about the decision to can the Mount Maunganui New Year's Eve event. Photo/file

Police have had an information-only meeting with councillors-elect about the decision to can the Mount Maunganui New Year's Eve event. Photo/file

Tauranga's new mayor and councillors have held a private meeting with emergency services about the canned Mount New Year's Eve event.

Speaking to the Bay of Plenty Times soon after the meeting Mayor Greg Brownless said he and the new councillors wanted to know if the right decision had been made.

Mr Brownless said that after hearing from emergency services he was not of a mind to revisit the decision to can the concert.

However, he thought it was worth looking at in the future.

"We will no doubt get together - and do it a bit earlier in the piece - and have a look at it again in the fresh light of the new year."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Western Bay of Plenty Police area commander Inspector Clifford Paxton and two St John ambulance representatives spoke to councillors elect at the information-only meeting.

"Police made it clear that over the last few events they noticed the nature of offending was getting worse and worse in terms of assault and serious violence," Mr Brownless said.

Though police could not guarantee 100 per cent safety, they believed it less likely that people would be subject to violence and assault by not holding the concert.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"We don't want the hoons to come, and unfortunately the last two times it seemed to be attracting more and more troublemakers.

"Police had intelligence that it was likely people were coming back for similar activities this time," Mr Brownless said.

After last year's New Year's Eve event on the Mount beach media reported explicit posts on a Facebook page where young people appeared to boast about sexual exploits on the beach including underage sex and allegations of sexual assault.

Mr Brownless said the midnight fireworks in Tauranga CBD and the under-18s event at ASB Baypark Stadium posed a better chance of seeing a peaceful New Year's Eve.

"The youth event has a single entry and exit with better security.

"There will be some trouble on the night, you can't expect there to be none, but we hope there will be significantly less - especially for the vulnerable group [under-18s]," Mr Brownless said.

NO ENTRY

A bid by the Bay of Plenty Times to report the New Year's Eve entertainment meeting with police was foiled after the reporter was not admitted to the secure part of the Civic Building in which meetings were held.

Instead, council communications manager Aimee Driscoll arrived at reception with an explanation on why it was not to be reported.

Mayor Greg Brownless had earlier in the day been given a courtesy call that the Bay of Plenty Times wanted to attend the meeting to report the proceedings because of the high public interest in the topic.

Ms Driscoll said the city's strategic partners were meeting with new councillors for the first time to go over the public reports presented to the former council.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

She said the new councillors were wanting the hear the same information.

"It was never intended to be an open meeting."

Ms Driscoll was then asked to take a request to the meeting for the Bay of Plenty Times to be allowed to report the meeting.

Ms Driscoll returned a few minutes later to say there had been a discussion. She then repeated her earlier statements that it was an informal meeting to talk about information provided in the earlier reports and to allow questions.

She reiterated the earlier offer that Mr Brownless would speak to the Bay of Plenty Times after the meeting had concluded.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bay of Plenty Times

Farmer's harrowing hours crushed beneath tractor

04 Jul 02:00 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

Farmer's harrowing hours crushed beneath tractor

Bay of Plenty Times

'A f****** ugly mess': Gang boss' text after fatal hotbox attack on mate of 20 years

04 Jul 12:24 AM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Farmer's harrowing hours crushed beneath tractor

Farmer's harrowing hours crushed beneath tractor

04 Jul 02:00 AM

Peter was trapped under a tractor for hours on his Mangakino farm.

Farmer's harrowing hours crushed beneath tractor

Farmer's harrowing hours crushed beneath tractor

'A f****** ugly mess': Gang boss' text after fatal hotbox attack on mate of 20 years

'A f****** ugly mess': Gang boss' text after fatal hotbox attack on mate of 20 years

04 Jul 12:24 AM
Traffic concerns grow as Tauriko roading developments advance

Traffic concerns grow as Tauriko roading developments advance

03 Jul 11:48 PM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP